Pubdate: 1 Jan 1999
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Copyright: 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

ETHICISTS DECRY STUDY THAT GAVE STRONG HALLUCINOGEN TO VOLUNTEERS

BOSTON -- Medical ethicists are raising objections to a study in which 100
healthy volunteers were given a powerful hallucinogen in an effort by
scientists to better understand mental illness.

In studies conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health, Yale
University and several other places, test subjects took small doses of
ketamine, also known as "Special K" or the "date rape drug."

Scientists conducting the study said volunteers were carefully screened for
mental illness and signed consent forms that warned of side effects such as
hallucinations and mood changes.

But some critics said the risks of the drug are not fully known and
questioned the ethics of inducing psychotic behavior in healthy people.
"The idea of inducing psychosis, in psychology or psychiatry, is the worst
thing that can happen," Carl Tishler, an adjunct professor at Ohio State
University, said Thursday. "If you are a cardiologist, do you induce a
heart attack in someone to see what it's like so you can study it?"
Ketamine is a trendy new designer drug used mainly by young people who pay
$20 to $40 per dose.

Nationwide, the drug has been connected to at least one death of a teen-
ager who mixed it with heroin; numerous sexual assaults; and thefts from
veterinarians' offices and hospitals.

Often used as a prescription surgical anesthetic for people and animals,
the drug has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It can
cause mild hallucinations, confusion and fear with regular use. Severe
hallucinations are possible with large doses. The Boston Globe reported
yesterday that healthy subjects run the risk of flashbacks months after
using ketamine.

"If this is what they do to normal (people), God help us with the
cognitively impaired," Adil Shamoo, a University of Maryland bioethicist,
told the newspaper.

But scientists say that ketamine can help unlock the mysteries of mental
illness, especially schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, by giving
researchers insight into the nature of hallucinations and mood disorders.
The experiments began in the early 1990s and ended more than a year ago.
They were designed to provoke symptoms of schizophrenia in healthy people
during a one-time exposure, said Dr. Trey Sunderland, chairman of NIMH's
review board.

He said the volunteers were screened for mental illness, drug use and
medical problems before being injected with approximately one-twentieth of
an average surgical dose. Some subjects were paid between $30 and $40, he
said.

Sunderland said that there is no documentation that ketamine has ever
caused flashbacks in surgical patients, and that no NIMH volunteers have
complained of side effects from the study. 
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